well crowds of parents packed into a State Board of Education meeting today there to sound off on an updated policy recently approved by the board that swapped out the word equality for Equity this year it set off a firestorm from parental rights Advocates and those who support it turning the issue into a political football at the start of this new school season despite the fact that the code doesn't change what's being taught in local schools it was just one of several education topics that had tensions running High Ted Goldberg reports from Trenton Ted Brianna the last few years have seen a lot of passionate debate and discourse around education in the Garden State and at today's Department of Education hearing it was no exception as parents on both sides of the aisle argued their cases about New Jersey's Equity code in schools today's hearing heard opinions on a range of issues in education including the equity code and parental notifications for students seeking accommodations for gender identity different then they're birth sex they shouldn't be harboring Secrets they think a child who was born from a mother's womb she feels safe to share that information that um hey Mom I have a little thing I'd like to discuss with you I I really don't think that it needs to go to a teacher or a non-relative if the student is expressing something in school that they're not comfortable expressing at home there's a reason for that and I don't think outing them to parents who might be intolerant or abusive or otherwise unsupportive is going to be helpful for the students you have a lot of well-intentioned parents here today who are believing misinformation and showing up in Outrage but the reality is that this has existed for over 20 years for nearly 20 years and it's not been an issue if you're familiar with the Bill of Rights there's a lot to do with your freedom to bodily autonomy you know I'm here for parental rights I want informed consent you know it's just you can't take our kids away from us the way that the state Equity standards are currently written upholds the New Jersey law against discrimination which is the foundation for equality in New Jersey there's no need for anything to change more than 150 people signed up to speak today so many people wanted to talk there were three rooms full of people letting the Department of Education know how they feel your removal of male and female is just another piece of this multi-level organized attacks on kids and our families around the state educate our kids don't adopting them inside the old school conversion therapy where a gay and lesbian should Australia some of the issues raised were familiar ones we've heard about for years things like problems with accessibility disrespect for certain professions within education and the Fallout from the lack of teachers the impact of the teacher shortage extends far beyond our school goals it directly affects the quality of educational students larger class sizes make it harder for teachers to provide individualized attention hindering their development critical contribution and seek to Outsource our jobs to third-party contractors this leads us with inadequate pay no benefit in part-time position we demand better recognition and support for the critical work that we do we ask the State Board to ensure all public input whether submitted and writing or delivered in person is available and accessible on the state board's website if the State Board were to shift to an online portal like the one used by the federal government of regulations to talk about we could streamline the entire process today's public hearing was the first of the year for the State Department of Education if the motion shown today is any indication expect just as many fireworks and future hearings to come